In many cases, the end of the year gives you time to step back and take stock of the last 12 months. This is when many of us take a hard look at what worked and what did not, complete performance reviews, and formulate plans for the coming year. For me, it is all of those things plus a time when I u...

Ixonos has designed and developed a new bird watching app for National Geographic, National Geographic Birds: Field Guide to North America. The highly innovative app is the only tool that any bird watcher in North America, beginner or experienced, needs besides a pair of binoculars. The app comprises the entire 640-page Field Guide to the Birds of North America book, and more. It uses Ixonos Media SparkTM assets, enabling media companies to boost their digital business.

"The birdwatching app was designed together with National Geographic with the desires and needs of bird watchers in mind," Riz Haque, Director, Key Customer Accounts from Ixonos says. "Our Dream, Design, Deliver - approach applied throughout the project ensured that we created something truly unique. It was a privilege to hear the customer's dream and then design it with their experts," Haque continues. "The input we gained from these professionals allowed us to deliver a tool that meets even the most demanding needs of bird watchers."

The app has been released for iPhone and iPad and is available worldwide in the App Store. It aims to make bird watching as intuitive as possible. The real-time search and filter interface allows the user to easily identify any bird based on various criteria. It also makes it very convenient to keep a diary of what birds you have seen and when. Additionally the app provides fun and helpful features such as quizzes and a toolkit with a glossary, bird watching ethics etc.

"National Geographic is fortunate to have Jonathan Alderfer, one of the world's leading bird experts, on hand to provide us with the valuable insight and illustrations used to create the rich content for this app," says Natalie Jones, National Geographic digital products manager. "Ixonos, with their Finnish design sensibilities, beautifully translated this content into a clean, user-friendly app that offers easy navigation, vibrant imagery, and tons of innovative features to make it the most comprehensive birding app on the market."

"When designing the app, we put user experience as first priority," Korhan Büyükdemirci, Senior UX Designer, Ixonos explains. "The user interface was kept very simple to emphasize the essentials to make it easy to use in the field. National Geographic Birds app is like having a bird watching expert in your pocket." By combining usability with extensive information the app takes the bird watching experience to a completely new level.

Ixonos is a creative mobile solutions company. We develop wireless technologies, software and solutions for connected devices and mobile services. Together with our corporate customers, we design products and services that let consumers enjoy inspiring mobile experiences. We enhance the competitiveness of our customer companies by enabling superior user experiences as well as faster time-to-market for their devices and services. We have offices in Finland, China, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Great Britain, Slovakia, South Korea and the U.S. Ixonos Plc is listed on NASDAQ OMX Helsinki Ltd. In 2011, the company's turnover was 81.4 million euros and its operating profit was 1.9 million euros.

The National Geographic Society is one of the world's largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations. Founded in 1888 to "increase and diffuse geographic knowledge," the Society works to inspire people to care about the planet. National Geographic reflects the world through its magazines, television programs, films, music and radio, books, DVDs, maps, exhibitions, live events, expeditions, interactive media and merchandise. National Geographic offers a full line of award-winning editorial, cartographic and gaming products over a variety of digital platforms.

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